This blog discusses the historical reliability of the Bible, the creation/evolution debate and apologetics in general.

Sunday, 7 February 2010

Goodbye, Primordial Soup!

New research moves the origin of life deeper into the oceans. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Joel Kontinen

Charles Darwin dreamt of a warm little pond, hoping that it would somehow cause the very first cell to come into being. Although evolutionists were fascinated by the idea, they were unable to find support for it.

When it became obvious that life could not begin in a warm little pond, scientists toyed with the idea of moving its genesis into deeper waters. In 1929, J. B. S. Haldane, the British geneticist known for the dilemma named after him, proposed the now discarded model. He suggested that UV radiation caused methane, ammonium and water to produce the first organic compounds in the oceans of the early earth.

A fresh study published in BioEssays suggests that it’s time to bury this idea. Lead author Nick Lane of University College London says that this old textbook explanation simply does not work.

Primordial soup is unable to produce life since much more than water is needed.

For supporters of evolution, the problem is by no means insignificant. If evolution is unable to begin, how on earth – or even elsewhere – can it proceed? The new study replaces primordial soup with a deep-sea hydrothermal vent.

However, even this hypothesis is as speculative as Darwin’s original dream. Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) already experimentally disproved the idea that life could come from inanimate matter. In other words, there is no such thing as spontaneous generation. While theorists might use the term abiogenesis instead, the same problem is as relevant as ever.

Source:

New Research Rejects 80-Year Theory of 'Primordial Soup' as the Origin of Life. ScienceDaily. 3 February 2010. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100202101245.htm